From the winemaker…
A lush concoction of baked figs, poached pears and crystallised ginger drizzled with manuka honey and a light sprinkling of soft brown sugar. Greywacke Pinot Gris is a ripe, opulent expression of the variety made in a voluptuous off-dry style that has considerable concentration and a long, luscious finish.
Much of the fruit for this wine is from the Selection Ovaille and Mission clones grown at Wrekin Terrace Vineyard in the Brancott Valley, a valley floor site on gravelly clay-loam soils typical of the Southern Valleys. A smaller parcel of the Entav 52 clone (known for its small bunch and berry size) was grown at Riverbrook Vineyard in Rapaura, in young alluvial soils containing high proportions of greywacke river stones. The vineyards are trained on a two-cane VSP (vertical shoot positioning) trellis and crop thinning is carried out to target a modest yield of 7.5 T/Ha.
The three clones were hand-picked separately at high ripeness levels and whole-bunch pressed using very low maceration press cycles. The resulting juice was coldsettled, then racked to fermentation vessels. Most of the juice went through a natural indigenous yeast fermentation in old French oak barriques and the balance was fermented in stainless steel tanks using cultured yeast. Towards the end of fermentation all the wine was transferred to stainless steel tanks where the fermentations were stopped, retaining 10 g/l residual sugar. The wine then spent a year on yeast lees (six months in old barrels and the remaining time in stainless steel tanks) prior to bottling in May 2018 with an alcohol of 14.4%, pH 3.30 and acidity of 5.7 g/l.
Release: June 2019
Deliciously rich, Alsace style…attractively scented, weighty wine, with concentrated peach, pear and spice flavours, excellent complexity and an off-dry, very harmonious finish.
5 Stars michaelcooper.co.nz
